President Lyndon B. Johnson's

Remarks With President Truman at the Signing in
Independence
of the Medicare Bill

July 30, 1965

PRESIDENT TRUMAN. Thank you very much. I am glad you like the
President. I like him too. He is one of the finest men I ever
ran across.

Mr. President, Mrs. Johnson, distinguished guests:

You have done me a great honor in coming here today, and you
have made me a very, very happy man.

This is an important hour for the Nation, for those of our
citizens who have completed their tour of duty and have moved
to the sidelines. These are the days that we are trying to celebrate
for them. These people are our prideful responsibility and they
are entitled, among other benefits, to the best medical protection
available.

Not one of these, our citizens, should ever be abandoned to
the indignity of charity. Charity is indignity when you have to
have it. But we don't want these people to have anything to do
with charity and we don't want them to have any idea of hopeless
despair.

Mr. President, I am glad to have lived this long and to witness
today the signing of the Medicare bill which puts this Nation
right where it needs to be, to be right. Your inspired leadership
and a responsive forward-looking Congress have made it historically
possible for this day to come about.

Thank all of you most highly for coming here. It is an honor
I haven't had for, well, quite awhile, I'll say that to you, but
here it is:

Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States.

THE PRESIDENT. President and Mrs. Truman, Secretary Celebrezze,
Senator Mansfield, Senator Symington, Senator Long, Governor Hearnes,
Senator Anderson and Congressman King of the Anderson-King team,
Congressman Mills and Senator Long of the Mills-Long team, our
beloved Vice President who worked in the vineyard many years to
see this day come to pass, and all of my dear friends in the Congress--both
Democrats and Republicans:

The people of the United States love and voted for Harry Truman,
not because he gave them hell--but because he gave them hope.

I believe today that all America shares my joy that he is present
now when the hope that he offered becomes a reality for millions
of our fellow citizens.

I am so proud that this has come to pass in the Johnson administration.
But it was really Harry Truman of Missouri who planted the seeds
of compassion and duty which have today flowered into care for
the sick, and serenity for the fearful.

Many men can make many proposals. Many men can draft many laws.
But few have the piercing and humane eye which can see beyond
the words to the people that they touch. Few can see past the
speeches and the political battles to the doctor over there that
is tending the infirm, and to the hospital that is receiving those
in anguish, or feel in their heart painful wrath at the injustice
which denies the miracle of healing to the old and to the poor.
And fewer still have the courage to stake reputation, and position,
and the effort of a lifetime upon such a cause when there are
so few that share it.

But it is just such men who illuminate the life and the history
of a nation. And so, President Harry Truman, it is in tribute
not to you, but to the America that you represent, that we have
come here to pay our love and our respects to you today. For a
country can be known by the quality of the men it honors. By praising
you, and by carrying forward your dreams, we really reaffirm the
greatness of America.

It was a generation ago that Harry Truman said, and I quote
him: "Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure
of opportunity to achieve and to enjoy good health. Millions do
not now have protection or security against the economic effects
of sickness. And the time has now arrived for action to help them
attain that opportunity and to help them get that protection."

Well, today, Mr. President, and my fellow Americans, we are
taking such action--20 years later. And we are doing that under
the great leadership of men like John McCormack, our Speaker;
Carl Albert, our majority leader; our very able and beloved majority
leader of the Senate, Mike Mansfield; and distinguished Members
of the Ways and Means and Finance Committees of the House and
Senate--of both parties, Democratic and Republican.

Because the need for this action is plain; and it is so clear
indeed that we marvel not simply at the passage of this bill,
but what we marvel at is that it took so many years to pass it.
And I am so glad that Aime Forand is here to see it finally passed
and signed--one of the first authors.

There are more than 18 million Americans over the age of 65.
Most of them have low incomes. Most of them are threatened by
illness and medical expenses that they cannot afford.

And through this new law, Mr. President, every citizen will
be able, in his productive years when he is earning, to insure
himself against the ravages of illness in his old age.

This insurance will help pay for care in hospitals, in skilled
nursing homes, or in the home. And under a separate plan it will
help meet the fees of the doctors.

Now here is how the plan will affect you.

During your working years, the people of America--you--will
contribute through the social security program a small amount
each payday for hospital insurance protection. For example, the
average worker in 1966 will contribute about $1.50 per month.
The employer will contribute a similar amount. And this will provide
the funds to pay up to 90 days of hospital care for each illness,
plus diagnostic care, and up to 100 home health visits after you
are 65. And beginning in 1967, you will also be covered for up
to 100 days of care in a skilled nursing home after a period of
hospital care.

And under a separate plan, when you are 65--that the Congress
originated itself, in its own good judgment--you may be covered
for medical and surgical fees whether you are in or out of the
hospital. You will pay $3 per month after you are 65 and your
Government will contribute an equal amount.

The benefits under the law are as varied and broad as the marvelous
modern medicine itself. If it has a few defects--such as the method
of payment of certain specialists-then I am confident those can
be quickly remedied and I hope they will be.

No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle
of modern medicine. No longer will illness crush and destroy the
savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so
that they might enjoy dignity in their later years. No longer
will young families see their own incomes, and their own hopes,
eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral
obligations to their parents, and to their uncles, and their aunts.

And no longer will this Nation refuse the hand of justice to
those who have given a lifetime of service and wisdom and labor
to the progress of this progressive country.

And this bill, Mr. President, is even broader than that. It
will increase social security benefits for all of our older Americans.
It will improve a wide range of health and medical services for
Americans of all ages.

In 1935 when the man that both of us loved so much, Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, signed the Social Security Act, he said it was,
and I quote him, "a cornerstone in a structure which is being
built but it is by no means complete."

Well, perhaps no single act in the entire administration of
the beloved Franklin D. Roosevelt really did more to win him the
illustrious place in history that he has as did the laying of
that cornerstone. And I am so happy that his oldest son Jimmy
could be here to share with us the joy that is ours today. And
those who share this day will also be remembered for making the
most important addition to that structure, and you are making
it in this bill, the most important addition that has been made
in three decades.

History shapes men, but it is a necessary faith of leadership
that men can help shape history. There are many who led us to
this historic day. Not out of courtesy or deference, but from
the gratitude and remembrance which is our country's debt, if
I may be pardoned for taking a moment, I want to call a part of
the honor roll: it is the able leadership in both Houses of the
Congress.

Congressman Celler, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, introduced
the hospital insurance in 1952. Aime Forand from Rhode Island,
then Congressman, introduced it in the House. Senator Clinton
Anderson from New Mexico fought for Medicare through the years
in the Senate. Congressman Cecil King of California carried on
the battle in the House. The legislative genius of the Chairman
of the Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Wilbur Mills, and
the effective and able work of Senator Russell Long, together
transformed this desire into victory.

And those devoted public servants, former Secretary, Senator
Ribicoff; present Secretary, Tony Celebrezze; Under Secretary
Wilbur Cohen; the Democratic whip of the House, Hale Boggs on
the Ways and Means Committee; and really the White House's best
legislator, Larry O'Brien, gave not just endless days and months
and, yes, years of patience--but they gave their hearts--to passing
this bill.

Let us also remember those who sadly cannot share this time
for triumph. For it is their triumph too. It is the victory of
great Members of Congress that are not with us, like John Dingell,
Sr., and Robert Wagner, late a Member of the Senate, and James
Murray of Montana.

And there is also John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who fought in the
Senate and took his case to the people, and never yielded in pursuit,
but was not spared to see the final concourse of the forces that
he had helped to loose.

But it all started really with the man from Independence. And
so, as it is fitting that we should, we have come back here to
his home to complete what he began.

President Harry Truman, as any President must, made many decisions
of great moment; although he always made them frankly and with
a courage and a clarity that few men have ever shared. The immense
and the intricate questions of freedom and survival were caught
up many times in the web of Harry Truman's judgment. And this
is in the tradition of leadership.

But there is another tradition that we share today. It calls
upon us never to be indifferent toward despair. It commands us
never to turn away from helplessness. It directs us never to ignore
or to spurn those who suffer untended in a land that is bursting
with abundance.

I said to Senator Smathers, the whip of the Democrats in the
Senate, who worked with us in the Finance Committee on this legislation--I
said, the highest traditions of the medical profession are really
directed to the ends that we are trying to serve. And it was only
yesterday, at the request of some of my friends, I met with the
leaders of the American Medical Association to seek their assistance
in advancing the cause of one of the greatest professions of all--the
medical profession--in helping us to maintain and to improve the
health of all Americans.

And this is not just our tradition--or the tradition of the
Democratic Party--or even the tradition of the Nation. It is as
old as the day it was first commanded: "Thou shalt open thine
hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, to thy needy, in thy
land."

And just think, Mr. President, because of this document--and
the long years of struggle which so many have put into creating
it--in this town, and a thousand other towns like it, there are
men and women in pain who will now find ease. There are those,
alone in suffering who will now hear the sound of some approaching
footsteps coming to help. There are those fearing the terrible
darkness of despairing poverty--despite their long years of labor
and expectation--who will now look up to see the light of hope
and realization.

There just can be no satisfaction, nor any act of leadership,
that gives greater satisfaction than this.

And perhaps you alone, President Truman, perhaps you alone
can fully know just how grateful I am for this day.

NOTE: The President spoke at 2:55 p.m. in the auditorium of
the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Mo. In his opening
words he referred to former President and Mrs. Harry S. Truman,
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Anthony J. Celebrezze,
Senator Mike Mansfield of Montana, majority leader of the Senate,
Senator Stuart Symington and Senator Edward V. Long of Missouri,
Governor Warren E. Hearnes of Missouri, Senator Clinton P. Anderson
of New Mexico, Representative Cecil R. King of California, Representative
Wilbur D. Mills of Arkansas, Senator Russell B. Long of Louisiana,
and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey.

During his remarks the President referred to, among others,
Representative John W. McCormack of Massachusetts, Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Representative Carl Albert of Oklahoma,
majority leader of the House of Representatives, Aime Forand,
Representative from Rhode Island 1937-1939 and 1941-1961, Representative
Emanuel Celler of New York, Senator Abraham Ribicoff of (Pg. 815)
Connecticut, former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare,
Under Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare Wilbur J. Cohen,
Representative Hale Boggs of Louisiana, Lawrence F. O'Brien, Special
Assistant to the president, John D. Dingell, Representative from
Michigan 1933-1955, Robert F. Wagner, Senator from New York 1927-1949,
James E. Murray; Senator from Montana 1934-1961, and Senator George
A. Smathers of Florida.

As enacted, the Medicare bill (H.R. 6675) is Public Law 89-97
(79 Stat. 286).

On July 25, 1965, the White House released a report to the
President from Secretary Celebrezze in response to the President's
request for organizational changes in the Social Security Administration
in preparation for administering the Medicare program.

The report stated that the reorganization would accomplish
the following major purposes:

"It establishes new units in the Administration with special
responsibility for hospital and supplementary medical insurance
programs;

"It changes some existing units, giving them additional
responsibilities under new programs;

"It centers data processing and transmission activities
in a central headquarters in the Administration;

"It strengthens upper-level management in the Administration,
makes the field service of the Administration more responsive
to directions from headquarters, and improves coordination between
Administration units."

The text of Secretary Celebrezze's report is printed in the Weekly Compilation
of Presidential Documents (vol. 1, p. 6).